The Showdown

www.myspace.com/theshowdown

When five men from the backwoods of Tennessee decide they have nothing to lose, you never know what might result. It could be mayhem. It could be recklessness. It could be just plain killer. Or, it could be all three at the exact same time. It is The Showdown.

Out of the gate, The Showdown was destined for greatness, tapping Bruce Fitzhugh (Living Sacrifice) to produce their debut release, A Chorus of Obliteration, for the now debunked Mono Vs. Stereo label. The Showdown combine fast metal with more common styles of metalcore and screamo.

On, Temptation Come My Way, The Showdown gives you the where, why, and how of the devastation, unpredictability, and substance that has come to personify this one-of-a kind heavy metal act. The Showdown, and their sophomore release, are not just defined by a collection of devastating, brutal, memorable songs . Rather, the songs are a reflection of a lifestyle, a carefree, live-each-moment-as-if-it-were-your-last mentality that separates them from the rest. The members of the band themselves, and their antics on and off the road, make them resemble mythical characters, larger-than-life rock super heroes. But The Showdown want you to know that beneath the fun, beneath the mayhem, lies a sense of substance; Rock n’ roll is not the end in and of itself, but just a metaphor for something greater.

With Temptation Come My Way, the band more than ups the ante. With over two years in its creation, The Showdown put painstaking effort into making it as close to flawless as humanly possible. And as strong as their debut effort was, the new release is as The Black Album was to Ride The Lightning. The production, provided by Paul Ebersold (Three Doors Down, Saliva) is huge, and reminiscent of a different era, a better era, an era when it was about songs and not just brutality. There is as much classic metal influence as there is heavy rock. Think Iron Maiden , pre-LoadMetallica, and Stone Temple Pilots. Choruses, verses, bridges. Dramatic song writing,that is not just seventeen riffs, randomly pieced together, with a fifteen-word song title. Six of the twelve tracks even have cowbell and every song has an epic guitar solo!
While others are piercing their faces and donning the latest scene fashion, The Showdown is playing heavy music the way it was meant to be played--fast, loud, fun, and real. One brush with them live or on record and you will meet a band that has something that most don’t.

In 2008, the band debuted on Solid State Records with Back Breaker, once again upping the energy and injecting as much loud metal sound in to every second as they could. They band in some ways returned to their roots, integrating elements of modern metal and hardcore into their already rich sound.